So That -(으)려고

Like the pattern -(으)러 가다/오다, you can use this pattern, -(으)려고, to express the purpose of an action or the your intention for doing that action. Note that I say action and not movement. Indeed, this pattern you use to express the purpose or intention of whatever action you are doing. If you were to translate this expression, you would end up with “so that” or “to”. Let’s look at an example:

Example: 다음 주에 연주하려고 요즘 열심히 연습하고 있어요.

Translation: I’m practicing hard these days to play next week.

How To Use

Using the Korean grammar expression -(으)려고 isn’t that difficult. Yet, there are still a few things we’ll have to go over. Of course, the first thing we need to go over is the way how you can conjugate verbs using this pattern. This pattern can only be used with verbs. This pattern follows the simple “Add 으 batchim/no batchim rule”. It goes like this:

As mentioned throughout this article, this pattern has a striking resemblance with the pattern -(으)러 가다/오다. However, they are very different in their use. First of all, unlike -(으)러 가다/오다 where the second clause can only use movement verbs, the pattern -(으)려고 second clause can have any type of verb. So you could also use verbs as movement and then the expression would be identical to -(으)러 가다/오다.

However, there are some restriction to -(으)려고 that -(으)러 가다/오다 does not have. First, you can use this pattern in present tense and the past tense, but not in the future tense. Using this pattern with the future tense sounds awkward in Korean. You will need another pattern for this such as -을/를 위해(서) when using the future tense. Secondly the second clause verb cannot use the pattern -(으)ㅂ시다, nor -(으)세요. Once again for this you’ll need to use another pattern.

Polar BearAuthor

After meeting Panda, Polar Bear became enthralled with the Korean Language. Today he spends his days learning Korean, writing notes on what he has learned and sharing it with everyone else. He hopes he can spread his love for Korean and help others learn it.